Improvement in door-plates



UNITED STATES PATENT Crrron ELIJAH AVEY, OF POLO, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN DOOR-PLATES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0- 15S,230, dated December 29, 1874; application filed Novemgber 21, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIJAH AVEY, of P010, in the county of Ogle and State of Illinois, have invented a new and valuable Improvement in Mail Door-Plates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference be ing had to the annexed drawings, makinga part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure l of the drawing is a representation of a front view of my mail door-plate. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the the same 5 and Fig. 3 is a detail view.

This invention has relation to means for facilitating mail delivery by carriers; and it consists in the construction and novel arrangenient in connection with a letter-box located on the inside of a door, and having a chute through the same, of a slotted faceplate on the exterior surface of thedoor surrounding the mouth of the letter-chutes, and a gravitating or vertically sliding door-plate made of sufficiently light material to be readily held up by means of the letter or paper while the same is passing through the chute,

whereby the carrier is enabled to compare the letter address with the name on the plate, and to hold the plate up while depositing the letter, with the letter itself, thus using but one hand in the delivery, all as hereinafter iully shown and described.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter A designates the letter-box secured to the inside of the door or partition B, through which is formed the horizontal slot or letterchute 0, above which extends a vertical recess, a.

To the exterior surface of the door is secured a face-plate, b, which is slotted horiwith the name of the owner of the letterbox, and the back of which is provided with a slide-lug, d, which has a small threaded extension, e, on its rear edge.

Before the friction-plate b is secured to the door, the lug cl is passed through the vertical slot 0, which should be long enough, when the lug is at its lowest end, to let the doorplate close the chute, and its edge coincide with the edge of the friction-plate, and when the lug is at its upper end to expose the chute. The lug (I will project through the slot 0, and is passed through the washer f, which is designed to slide on the rear of the wear-plate, and is secured by the nut 02, which is screwed on the extension 6 of said lug. In this manner the door-plate may be securely fastened to the face-plate, and at the same time have a very free movement thereon, in the direction of the guide-slot o.

The door-plate is now raised, exposing the lower portion of the face plate, which is secured in proper position to the door by means of countersunk screws. Then the plate drops of its own weight over the chute-opening, and the device is ready for the reception of letters.

It is preferable that the form of the door- .plate should be elliptical, because there will be then no lateral obstruction to the passage of a letter when the central portion of its lower edge is raised sufficiently high to un cover the chute.

A letter-carrier usually has his bundle which he is delivering in one hand, and can thereupon only conveniently use the other in delivering any particular letter. With this device he will haveno difficulty.

The plate can be raised by the end of the letter until high enough to expose the mouth of the chute, when the letter can be pushed through into the letter-box. During its passage through the mouth of the chute the stiffness of an ordinary letter will he sufficient to keep the plate up, because its direction of pressure is almost coincident with the plane of the mouth of the chute.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- The door B, provided with the recess aend In testimony that I claim the above I have chute O, in combination with the face-plate hereunto subscribed my name in the presence I), having the horizontal and vertical slots 0 of two Witnesses.

c, and gravitating door-plate D, provided with v ELIJ AH AVEY. the slide-lug d, washer f, and nut n, all con- Witnesses: strueted and arranged as and for the purpose JAMES C. LUOKEY,

set forth. 7 v JOSEPH B. J OHNSON. 

